Water polo kicks off by hosting tournament
The Oberlin College water polo team kicked off their fall season by hosting a tournament this past weekend at Oberlin’s Carr Pool. Only two weeks into the season, the Yeomen butted heads with big name schools including Miami of Ohio, University of Dayton and Ohio Univeristy in the Ohio Valley Division. After placing fourth in the conference championships last season, the Yeomen started out full force for their season- opening games. With many new faces ,including first-years Mimi Issa, Scott McInerney and Kyle Solow and sophomore Maura Dwyer, the team had a record number of players at the tournament. As a building team, the plethora of novice players also impacted the focus of practices. “We only had four practices before the tournament. Some of our newcomers haven’t played polo before, so we spent the majority of those practices going over basics,” said senior co-captain Gabriel Golden. Despite playing together for the first time, the Yeomen performed exceptionally well. Golden and senior co-captain Zachary Kaplan-Moss gave the team one objective to accomplish during the tournament-- to take as many shots on goal as they could. That, the Yeomen did, averaging over 30 shots per game. Golden and Kaplan-Moss together were credited for 23 out of the 29 goals the Yeomen scored during the two-day tournament. The Yeomen followed their leaders’ suit with a memorable goal by junior Melissa Ising, scoring against Miami University. Returning powerhouse players sophomore Ian Hilburger, juniors Craig Betchart, Yorgos Strangas and Thomas Limouze and senior Joel Ketner also added depth to the team’s offensive drive. Despite incurring four losses throughout the weekend, the Yeomen had a positive outlook on the tournament. With crazy antics such as Hilburger’s monkey call in goal prior to the start of each game, the Yeomen kept their heads up. “We may be amateur, but all of us were a threat to goal this weekend,” killer offender Limouze commented. “We had a blast and everyone was a true beast.” The Yeomen continue to work on improving and building the team. Their next
tournament is Oct. 8.
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